Friday 1st February 2019

I begin the blog this week on a sad note. As you will know, our Headteacher, Mr. Graham Hughes, has resigned from his position, with effect from 30th April. We are all thankful for his many years of service and leadership at Castell Alun and he will always be part of our school. Mr. Hughes is held in high esteem across Flintshire and he tells us that he is looking forward to being in a position where he can make plans for the next season of his professional life. He remains also a close personal friend to many. The Governing Body has asked me to undertake the role of Acting Headteacher during an interim period, a role which I have accepted with great pride in the knowledge that I lead a wonderful team of professionals, and am personally supported by an extremely experienced Senior Leadership Team. I am humbled by the support and commitment which you as parents and carers give our school on a daily basis and I could not ask for a more wonderful student population.

We were unable to hold a main school assembly this week due to internal examinations in the school halls for students in Years 9 and 10. All students have acquitted themselves well in these examinations, which are nearly complete, with the exception of the assessments which were scheduled to take place on Wednesday and will now take place during lessons next week. Thank-you once again for your patience and understanding when I was forced to close the school on Wednesday. Please do rest assured that we do not take such decisions lightly and only do so if conditions are treacherous and we cannot be sufficiently confident in guaranteeing the safety of people travelling to school and indeed spending time on the school grounds.

Despite the cold conditions a number of our Year 12 students enjoyed a Geography field trip to Betwys Y Coed on Monday, in keeping with the requirements of their AS Level syllabus.

A group of Year 8 students were treated to a story telling workshop in the Library on Tuesday, led by Jake Evans, who recently won the Young Story Teller of the Year Award. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. Who knows …. perhaps we have the next Anthony Horowitz in our midst!

We are incredibly proud of our Year 10 students who, as reported in a previous Blog, earned so much money for Hope House recently. Four of these students were invited to the Council Chambers, County Hall in Mold in order to be given special recognition for their fantastic efforts in building Christmas garden ornaments in such a professional manner. Really well done Kamden, Ewan, Charlie and Callum. Next stop The Apprentice!

Congratulations to Lily from Year 11 who represented North East Wales at U16s level in the Welsh Inter Counties Netball tournament this week. We are sure you will go on to yet greater things.

As we look to next week we are excited that examination level Drama students will have a visit from Splendid Productions on Monday afternoon and that some of our students will participate in a Welsh World Wise Quiz (North Wales round) on Tuesday… best of luck team Castell Alun!

As you know on Thursday evening we will open our doors to anybody who has an interest in our Castell Alun Sixth Form. This Open Evening will run from 6.30pm and it will be lovely to see everyone, whether already connected with Castell Alun or showing an interest in what we have to offer from other schools. We are very proud of the achievements of all of our Sixth Form students and many students from other schools are able to fit seamlessly into Year 12 to join our own students each year.

Coming soon in our Community Library, we have on Saturday 16th February from 11am to 1pm an introductory talk and brainstorming session on the theme of ‘Giving Nature a Home in our Community’. Futhermore, on Tuesday 26th February at 2pm a local author, Mrs. Joanne Pritchard, will be reading from her book ‘Bellamy Brickle’s Circus Dream’. This is a free event and is ideal for children between the ages of 3 and 8.